r of international affairs, whenever something happens, the right to have a security council meeting and decide and if necessary use their vetoes. so the idea of automatic provisions is something that russia didn't like and that is something that was some debate and some disagreement among the six international parties that have been leading all this. talking about the international players, when we see them come on the podium the first two people who will speak, the iranian foreign minister, and the eu representative. although john kerry has been here all this time technically, this process has always been led for the international community by the european union. catherine ashton was deeply involved in these nuclear negotiations for a long time. >> for a moment thank you. we're going to keep with those

live shots i think from the press conference in switzerland. let's take you now to washington d.c. and speak to al jazeera's correspondent there. james was alluding to a little earlier all this being very very carefully watched by congress. >>reporter: it really is. i want to give you a scheduling update. president obama was scheduled to go to louisville about two hours ago for a speech but he's still at the white house. officials are not saying if we'll hear from the president or not. they've been putting out stories that the president is intimately involved with this process, knows the number of centrifuges, has been keeping abreast of every step. and one reason he's put so much on this is that this is going come down to an ultimate fight with congress. there are two different bills that they could try to scuttle this deal. they could say congress has to have oversight of any final agreement. one thing they say at the white house is let's say we make a deal congress passes the bill and then they're able to scuttle

it. what that does is leaves iran with access to all of the other international banking and other countries to do business with and that it would isolate iran in the end. another thing they're considering is a sanctions bill which would go in place if the talks fell apart. so they were trying to get that passed but on both of these bills, the president has said this is my prerogative to make the bill. i will veto anything that you try. it looked like the democrats -- the republicans had enough democratic support to override any presidential veto. that has since changed. what we saw after prime minister ben netanyahu of israel came and made a speech to congress much to the chagrin to the white house, that democratic support fell apart.

polls have shown repeatedly that they want the congress to have some final say over the deal but they also want congress and the u.s. to make a deal with iran. that really is what the president is going for him. he's said if congress does this overrides my veto i'm going to make the case to the american public. so far it seems the american public is definitely siding with the president. >> public opinion is that some sort of deal is necessary. you mentioned benjamin netanyahu who is demanding that the deal between iran and the world powers significantly curb iran's nuclear program. yet, another sign that the president and the israeli prime minister are poles apart. >>reporter: and that matters because what's going to really have a huge impact on how this turns out in congress is how hard prime minister netanyahu tries to scuttle the deal

through his very powerful lobbying group known as apec. they tend to follow his marching orders. if they tried to really impose their will on this they could sway not only some republicans but also democrats. so right now, the white house feels -- i've talked to people behind the scenes -- they feel like they have enough democrats to stay with the president that they would not be able to override a veto but if the prime minister really tries to put some of his weight on capitol hill, that could change. >> yeah i mean, a lot has been talked about by political analysts in the u.s. about what president obama's legacy will eventually be. is this iran -- is that something that's very very important to him as part of his legacy? >> it is hugely important. and i think in some ways the administration and the officials here believe that it would vindicate the president's strategy of engagement with the world. they've been critical of other

presidents and republicans especially saying you always want to use military as the first option. the diplomacy should be what we go to first. so if he's able to get a deal that the american people feel is a good solid deal, it will obviously be one of the first things in his legacy. if you think about the decades of of of s strange -- estrangement from iran waiting as we all are for any sign delegations from various countries, the p5+1 plus iran at that press conference due to announce some sort of deal on iran's nuclear program. we'll of course return there as soon as figures appear in that room figures that aren't

members of the very patient press corps there in switzerland the other news this hour is the continuing hostage standoff at the university in northeastern kenya. malcomb webb is actually live in the northeast and joins us as you can see right now in vision for the first time. give us an update on what you now know is happening inside the university. i know it's still a very fluid situation. >>reporter: after a very heavy fire fight this afternoon which reached a climax during the end of the afternoon, after that fighting stopped. we've since spoken to some on the phone inside the university compound so eyewitnesses, they say at the moment people are still a bit concerned and worried about going into the

buildings and most of the fighting and most of the dead hostages are because they think there may still be one assailant in there. the loud explosions heard this afternoon may have been one or possibly two of the assailants wearing suicide vests and blowing up and they believe the remaining assailants in the building could also be wearing suicide vests. so they're trying to tread very carefully carefully. >> a lot of people criticizing the security at the university. i think there were just two police guards there. >>reporter: two security guards. that's right. two armed guards. they were both killed by the attackers as soon as they arrived. we've heard from some reliable sources that people had warned the government in previous months about the specifically about the vulnerability of this institution and the teacher training school also. people felt that these

institutions were particularly vulnerable because of the large number of students living there in relatively low security and particularly because they draw people from different parts of the country so there's a concentration of people there that aren't from this area. the people from this area are mostly ethnic somalis but al shabaab mostly attacked people from other ethnic groups in kenya and this concentration of them are in these institutions so they said this would be a likely place to attack. they say that they warned the government and the government didn't follow up on their request to increase security and it has turned out that this institution was very vulnerable and five or six attackers have killed dozens of people. >> terrible situation both for those obviously inside the university at the time that the al shabaab gunmen stormed the college but also for relatives

who are desperately i guess waiting for news. >>reporter: that's right. a number of these relatives are from different parts of the country. we even heard in the earlier parts of the day, the attackers were separating muslims out that would have likely been from this part of the country. so it seems most of the people that were killed were students traveling from other parts of the country to come here. so it will take time for their families to get here. and also there's a curfew year so at 7:00 p.m. we were approached by a gang of soldiers who shouted and threatened us one member of a team was beaten with a stick. they were very aggressive and we had to move away from the university compound where we've been throughout the day. for people living here this seems to be the kind of treatment that they can expect to get after 7:00 o'clock on

such a tense day. so no one is moving around at this time meaning no one is going to be checking the bodies of the deceased right now. >> malcomb webb live there in northeastern kenya. thank you very much for that update. we'll take you live now to the press conference room in switzerland where we're due to hear from the p5+1 and iran on what sort of a deal has been agreed over iran's nuclear program. there you can see they're lining up with their respective flags. i think that we are due to hear first of all from the iranian foreign minister followed by the eu's foreign policy chief. but at the moment obviously they're just standing in front of their respective flags to hold the usual photo call. it would appear to be waiting for the german representative. and there he is. so photo call taking place.

once that is done we're expecting either the iranian foreign minister or the eu's foreign policy chief to take the podium. we've already heard a few leaks but we're going to get some details on what parameters of the deal have been agreed upon.

i'm going now to read the joint statement that we have agreed on with iran's foreign minister and all the others that have been negotiating so hard. we the european union are representative even the foreign ministers of the republic of iran as well as the p 3 plus 1 china, france germany, russian federation, the united kingdom and the united states met from 26th march to 2nd april 2015 in

switzerland. we gather here to find solutions towards reaching a comprehensive resolution that will ensure the peaceful nature of the iranian nuclear program and the comprehensive lifting of all sanctions. today, we have taken a decisive step. we have reached solutions on key parameters of a joint comprehensive plan of action. the political determination, the goodwill, and the hard work of all parties made it possible. this is a crucial decision laying the basis for the final text on the joint comprehensive plan of action. we can now restart drafting the

text. guided by the solutions developed in this place. as iran pushes a peaceful nuclear program, iran's enrichment level will be limited for specific durations and there will be no other enrichment facility. iran's research and development on centrifuges will be carried out on a scope and schedule that has been mutually agreed. four will be converted from an enrichment site into a nuclear physics and technology center. international collaboration will be encouraged. there will not be any -- an international joint venture will assist iran in redesigning and rebuilding a modernize research

reactor in iraq that will not produce weapons, weapons grade plutonium. a set of measures has been agreed to monitor the provisions of the -- including implementation of the modified -- and provisional application of the traditional protocol. the international atomic agency will be permitted the use of modern technologies and have agreed procedures including to clarify present issues. iran will take part in international cooperation in the field of civilian energy energy. another important area of cooperation will be in the field of nuclear safety and security.

the united states will cease the application of all nuclear-related and financial sanctions. simultaneously with the iae verified implementation by iran of its key nuclear commitments. a new u.n. security council resolution will endorse the jpcao, terminate all previous nuclear-related resolutions and incorporate certain restrictive measures for a mutually-agreed period of time. we will now work to write the text of a joint comprehensive plan of action including -- and the political and experts level. we are committed to complete our efforts by june 30th.

we would like to thank the swiss government for hosting these negotiations and let me permly on behalf of everybody also thank you all journalists and media from around the world for having followed our work and somehow having worked with us through this difficult and intense couple of weeks. thank you good evening to all of you. let me also join in thanking both the swiss government and the distinguished members of the press and media for trying to work with us over the past several weeks and trying to help us in getting the world to understand what is going on. as our tradition is i would read the same statement that was just read out in english in farcy.

it will be the same interpretation. james, put it into easy english for us. what has been agreed? what did she just announce? >>reporter: well there was suggestions there was just going to be a statement to say that they were going to continue work and have made progress but these are very very substantial things that have been announced in the last few minutes.

iraq, the ones we've previously spoken about are uranium. there's the uranium and plutonium route to make a nuclear bomb. also signing up to the protocols of the international atomic agency which will carry out the inspections. then on sanction the eu and the u.s. to lift their sanctions and a new security council resolution. this we believe will all happen after june after the final work and all the details have been done which will then replace all existing u.n. security council resolutions with all those sanctions, a total of six resolutions. so very important things that have been decided here and some talk before that perhaps there would just be a statement and

would that be enough would it be a framework agreement or not. i think it's a very important concession that's being made here by iran. we're going to hear from the other foreign ministers in a moment. let me just tell you that the u.s. secretary of state, john kerry, was on twitter and said a big day, the eu p5+1 and iran now have guarantees to resolve the remaining issues to deal with iran's nuclear program. and now they go back to work as soon as possible on the actual drafting of the deal which will be done by the end of june. >> so james, it seems to be far more detailed than we've been led to believe. i think the key detail now is who is getting the best deal out of that. all sides will want to say we've achieved what we need to achieve. >>reporter: absolutely. and some of the details that

were given before at the timeline of this i think are interesting because it's a total of a 25-year timeline under which iran will be under some scrutiny. but during a ten-year period of that, the tightest restrictions. and it's been told to us by western sources that what they've agreed here -- so these very significant and concrete details which i think some of us after all these negotiations seemed like we weren't going to get. the devil has been in the detail of those negotiations. the devil has also been in which details to include in this statement.

and i think there's a lot of detail in there. it will be interesting to see now how the critics of this whole process. >> james, excellent job of trying to explain. thank you very much indeed. with me now in the studio is mark fitzpatrick, the director of the nonprolive program at the international -- proliferation program. give us your view of what actually this deal means. >> this deal addresses each of the issues that have been under negotiation for the last two

years. issues about limitations in iran's program and they've agreed to limit every aspect of the program. not as much as had been in the beginning but significant limitations in their program. it means these outstanding questions will have to be addressed at some time. and then the issue of sanctions, when they will be lifted. as i heard it some of the sanctions will be lifted simultaneously with the iaea getting some satisfaction. we need to hear more about that but to me that sounds like iran didn't get everything that it

wanted. the sanctions are the things that have been -- >> they are really what they wanted they wanted the u.n. sanctions lifted right away. it sounded like some sanctions are going to remain in place. >> we're going to have to see. the devil is in the details. so iaea members are going to be allowed into iran and are going to be allowed to inspect particular sites and look at the past too. >> the iaea will have to be able to get answers to future questions and that we have do learn about. it sounds to me like even more monitoring will be applied to any other country in the world.

>> one of the leaks that came before that press conference was the fact that iran will have to reduce its centrifuges from i think 19,000 to 6,000. explain if you can in easy terms, what does that actually mean? >> okay. so the western powers had insisted that there be a what's called a one-year breakout period that if iran were to go for broke and try to produce weapons, it would take at least one year. so the number of centrifuges is very crucial to that one-year calculation. if the number of centrifuges is 6,000 and all the uranium has been shipped out and this have to start from scratch basically, then you can get to this one-year breakout period. the more centrifuges you have the shorter approximate period of the break out. a couple of other variables, we need to hear the details, i'm

pretty sure that the western powers will be able to explain to us that yes, this does meet the one-year breakout criteria they had established. that's the first time i've actually heard that detail. i thought it was going to be able to produce a little bit but she said no weapons-grade

plutonium so they're going to thoroughly redesign that reactor and that's a level of cooperation between iran and the west. it shows a new level of engagement with iran. it's going to be fascinating when we do get the full detail of just how much either side has had to compromise. >> i'm really looking forward to the detail. i bite my tongue because i don't want to make too many assessments before i see all the details and many people will be. the twitter world will be full of attacks on the deal as a sellout, a surrender. please do join me again and we'll have more reaction on that

iran nuclear deal and the latest on the hostage situation in kenya. n kenya.

hello there. you're watching the news hour live from london. coming up deal done. iran and world powers agree an outline nuclear agreement in switzerland. more than 70 dead and hundreds still unaccounted more after al shabaab gunmen attack a college in northeast